Forthcoming exhibition:
THE MENTAL FURNITURE INDUSTRY
29 June - 4 Aug
Opening Friday 28 June 6 - 9 pm
Image: Hornsey School of Art students, 1968, courtesy of Middlesex University Archives
Institutionalised education and standardised pedagogical practices are principal activities of the Mental Furniture Industry* (MFI). Likewise, the tools of this trade - books and language - are the apparatus of learnt knowledge and received opinion.
This exhibition narrates three historic examples of pedagogical radicalism. The Anti-University, The Hornsey Sit-in and Alexander Trocchi’s sigma project. Alongside a small, accessible archive of material from 1964-1968 are selected works produced by the artists and writers involved in the collective activism.
In addition, a number of artists propose contemporary projects of un-learning, obstruction to instruction and anti-knowledge through physical and performative interventions, including Olivia Plender & Patrick Staff, Adelita Husni-Bey & Park McArthur and Sarah Pierce. Jakob Jakobsen will launch his new project, Anti-know.
A publication to accompany the exhibition will be available with contributions from the exhibiting artists plus John Hill, Nina Power and Howard Slater.
*This phrase first appears in the title of John Latham's work MFI Bing (1975) as well as in correspondence dated 21 January 1974, referring to "a mental furniture design project"
For more information please see our website www.flattimeho.org.uk
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